Its leopards centre on the Jawai Bandh Leopard Conservation Reserve, notified in 2010, but range across a wider patchwork of village and revenue land, a looseness now under review, with courts and the forest department moving toward tighter protection and possible sanctuary status. The coexistence between leopards and the Rabari herders isn’t happening inside a managed reserve with buffer zones and core areas; it’s happening on ordinary inhabited terrain, which is why the story is about tolerance and shared ground rather than about protected wilderness.

This, while ideal in an ideal world, has a negative connotation in the real world: leopards are often chased by unchecked jeeps, people walk across the terrain, shout at each other from one jeep to another, while the big cat, for very good reason, hides from plain sight. But that’s a story for another day.

The new story that’s unfolding

Rajasthan tourism, the local Jawai administration under the district collector, and Aaramgah Jawai Resort & Spa, a member of Radisson Individual Retreats, are working to write a new story for the region, one that reaches past the leopard safari without leaving it behind. The cats remain the heart of the experience, but wellness and adventure now sit alongside them.

On June 21, International Yoga Day, an early morning yoga session was organised by Aaramgah and the local administration amidst the boulders, with a view of the Jawai Bandh and its blue waters, and the district collector, Dr Ravindra Goswami, in attendance. And then there is India’s first wildlife trail marathon, slated for 24 January, 2027, an Aaramgah initiative developed with Rajasthan Tourism and local authorities. Its first edition offers two categories, 12 and 24kms., on a route that starts and ends at the resort and dips through the dam’s catchment, dry ground once the water recedes. A professional organiser was brought in to survey the terrain for safety before a single runner was signed up. “Trail marathon is a niche within the marathon community, because not everybody runs trail,” says co-founder Devrang Agarwal. “There is a higher level 
of endurance required.” Talks are on with Gujarat Tourism to draw runners from marathon chapters in Ahmedabad and other Gujarat cities.

The yoga day and the marathon carry a single argument: that Jawai holds more than its wild cats. “When you search for Jawai, you just see leopards,” Agarwal says. “We want to show people there is a lot more.” He and his younger brother Tanay, hoteliers from Mount Abu, sited Aaramgah well away from leopard territory, the dam and the railway line, on former lemon-tree farmland ringed by a ten-foot boundary. What they call the boulder town sits on the Aravalli range, older and steadier than the Himalayas, and shelters crocodiles, sloth bears, foxes, nilgai and clouds of migratory birds. Because most of the terrain is privately held, the safari here runs unregulated, along hill drives and improvised paths instead of one fixed circuit.

The property leans the other way from its adventure programming, toward stillness. “Aaramgah is the easiest way to do nothing,” Agarwal says, pointing to washrooms fitted with brass lotas and bathing stools of a grandparent’s house, and rooms finished in age-old terrazzo and gutai, a lime technique that keeps interiors cool. In winter, when the region has no industry and the resort’s lights face downward to spare the sky, the stars come out in full.

Culture completes the picture. Rabari, the shepherd community whose silver jewellery has drifted into big-city fashion, sing at the resort each weekend, and guests can be taken, on request, into a Rabari home to watch a meal cooked and a herd moved. It is, Agarwal says, an experience meant to be memorable rather than merely rough. For now, the leopard still draws the first glance. Jawai is making the case that it need not be the last. In time, the region hopes to be known as much for wellness, yoga amidst the ancient rocks, and its wildlife trail marathon, as for its enduring symbol.